Vampire Academy
Who would of thought there was yet more teenage vampirism than you could put a stake into? Vampire Academy is based on a book series by author Richelle Mead, and so given that the film is not utterly awful (though it helps a lot if you like American high school romances), we can expect a slew (there are six books) of films to follow. Mead has created her own vampire lore, and sadly director Mark Waters does not show the same finesse in handling the ponderous chunk of exposition as, say, Chris Columbus in the first Harry Potter movie. Rose Hathaway (Zoey Deutch) is a Dhampir, half human/vampire, guardians of the Moroi, peaceful, mortal vampires living discretely within the human world. Her mission is to protect the Moroi princess Lissa Dragomir from the bloodthirsty, immortal Vampires, the Strigoi. Inevitably, there are conflicts between romance and friendship, duty and desire, the whole thing surgically targeted at a female teen audience.
Labor Day
Kate Winslet is Adele, a woman living alone with her son. Her husband has gone and her life has become increasingly insular and depressed. One day, persuaded to go on a shopping trip by her son, she is all but abducted by escaped convict Frank (Josh Brolin), who hides out in her home. A romance quickly blooms, and man, woman and child create their own fragile world of affection that they all know cannot last as police gradually tighten the net. The setup is vastly improbable, and this is yet another example of absurd stories being held together by the sheer force of the leading actors’ performances. Winslet is in fine form, producing a nuanced portrayal of a woman starved of love and hungering for an emotional connection. Brolin is solid, if a little too good to be true, and if you can stomach the heavy dose of The Bridges of Madison County sentimentality, Labor Day makes for an excellent date flick.
One Chance
A feel good movie that does what a feel good movie is supposed to do. It does nothing else, providing nothing that will surprise audiences in the presentation of the story of Paul Potts, a manager of a mobile phone outlet who became a minor celebrity after winning Britain’s Got Talent in 2007 with his renditions of various operatic classics. Directed by David Frankel, who brought us The Devil Wears Prada and Marley & Me, and starring James Corden and Alexandra Roach, One Chance is a craftsmanlike piece of work, hitting most right notes most of the time. We follow Potts on his journey to Italy, where his instructors confirm his father’s opinion that his operatic ambitions are no more than a dream, but against all the odds, the shy and often bullied telephone salesman finds his way into the big time, courtesy of reality television. There is no point in the movie where you don’t know what will happen, but the central character is sufficiently likable and the supporting cast proficient, that you can easily sit back and enjoy the ride.
Old Boy
An American remake of South Korean director Park Chan-Wook’s Korean thriller of the same name shows respect for the original, but fails to get to the heart of its material. Directed by Spike Lee, the film is an exploitation flick that ticks along pretty well for the most part. Josh Brolin plays Joe, a man who has been abducted and kept in solitary confinement for 20 years. Then he is released, and must find the reason for his abduction and take vengeance for what has been done to him. There is considerable mayhem in the process, and the performances are generally good, but Lee is primarily interested in the opportunities for violence that the revenge drama provides and loses his grip on the moral conflicts that where the driving force behind Park’s original.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
This is a conventional biopic with little originality in the way it presents its story. It takes Nelson Mandela from his time as a fiery young activist through his long incarceration in Robben Island and his emergence as the elder statesman of the anti-apartheid movement. This is very much an authorized life, and takes in such a broad span of history that it can do little more in terms of storytelling than join up the dots. It does so effectively enough, though director Justin Chadwick’s (The Other Boleyn Girl ) rather pedestrian narrative and the often melodramatic tone can be annoying. One thinks of the much more light-footed Invictus, and by comparison Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom takes itself far too seriously. What holds the audience through the history lesson is the towering performance of Idris Elba (probably best known for his role as Stringer Bell in the TV series The Wire) and Naomie Harris, who both have enormous presence in their roles as Nelson and Winnie Mandela, providing an emotional core that almost manages to compensate for the lack of real insight in the screenplay.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby